Beyond Our Shattered Souls
by StormyOnyx
Summary: Falling. To have all you are violently ripped away from you, there's naught that could possibly compare. To rebel is to fall. I knew that when I did it, and yet I did it willingly. For him. All for him. Why? I haven't the slightest idea. All I know is… I must protect him.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer (Please Read):** This work contains several details and references to religion, particularly Christian mythology. The contents of this work are not my own personal beliefs and I am not trying to sway anyone in any way. This is for entertainment purposes only.

Also, I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any related characters.

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><p>"<em>And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, <em>

_and his angels were cast out with him_." - Revelation 12:9

Humans have it so easy. They get chance after chance and all they have to do is apologize if they do something wrong. For us, it's not so simple. One mistake, one single slip-up is all it takes. Then it's all over. I've seen it happen before, but I never thought it would be me.

Two of my brothers hauled me to my judgment. They threw me onto the seal, tossing me away like a piece of trash before turning their backs on me and leaving me alone with the one I'd always looked up to.

"Michael," I breathed, trying to get up off my knees but finding that I couldn't move. As soon as my flesh had touched the seal, I had been bound to it. There was no getting out of this, but I'd already known that.

"Look at me!" I shouted, struggling against the seal.

The great archangel held my gaze for a long moment before taking a breath and closing his eyes. "I didn't want to have to do this, Riku," he said, the weight of his voice washing over me like a flood. "I've been given the order, however. It must be done."

"You can't let Him do this," I said, clenching my teeth. "It's wrong and you know it!"

"He is never wrong," he said calmly, looking sternly into my eyes, "and you must learn your place."

"Wait," I whispered as he touched my face.

"I never thought I would have to do this again," he said, running his thumb along my jaw, "especially not to you." His eyes, they looked… somber. His gaze was softer and for a moment, I even thought he regretted what he had to do.

"Michael," I whispered. "Please." My voice was small, but he heard it. His eyes… those unwavering blue eyes… For a split second, I'd seen something of my brother in them and I knew my voice had reached him. He heard me not as the condemned, but as a friend. That alone was enough. He was doing what he had to… and so was I.

"Riku," he said, holding his hands behind his back. "You spoke out against our Lord. Your crime is treason. For this crime, I strip you of your title and rank. You are no longer worthy of walking in The Kingdom. You are no longer worthy to be called a servant of the Lord. You are no longer worthy to be called my brother."

The words stung with the force of a thousand lacerations, but I kept perfectly silent as my sentence was carried out. Michael was no longer speaking to his trusted brother, but to a traitor, an angel who had broken faith. He would never be able to admit it, not to me or anyone else, but this hurt him as much as it did me.

"You will never see these halls again," he said as he bound my hands behind my back with a thick black cloth. Then, he placed his hand on my back and without any hesitation, said, "I cast you out."

A cold wind enveloped me and I felt myself falling, not through any sky, but through the world. I was being pushed out of this entire plane of existence and into the realm of mortals. The journey was a long and brutal one that ripped at the fabric of my very soul. I had visited the mortal plane hundreds, maybe even thousands of times before, but this was something else. I wasn't just visiting this time. I was being expelled from The Kingdom, unwillingly thrown out. Of course the trip down wasn't meant to be pleasant. My life was being torn apart piece by smoldering piece and I could do nothing to stop it.

After what seemed like an eternity, the world began to slow down and time began to have meaning as I passed completely through the barrier, never to return. My bare flesh collided with the hard, wet earth in a surprisingly jarring impact and I suddenly felt the biting touch of cold. I tried to reach out, only to discover that my hands remained bound. I hadn't expected anything from the Kingdom to cross with me, hence my lack of clothes. Perhaps the binding was symbolic, to serve always as a reminder of my sins.

I then took note of how fragile and battered my flesh had become. Pain. So this… this is what it was like to bleed. Had they made me mortal?

"They wouldn't sink that low," came a deep, resounding voice from my right. I looked over to see a man, beautiful to look upon and dressed in formal, elegant clothes by human standards. He stood over me, looking down at me with a slight smile on his face. "Look at you, look at you. You must have really pissed someone off. This has only happened, what, once in our entire history?" His smile grew and my eyes widened as I recognized the man. I had only seen his face once before, but it was a face that we all remembered well.

"Lucifer," I said, trying to pull myself into a sitting position or at least off of the ground, but finding that I was too weak to support my own weight.

He lifted an eyebrow and said, "Using my actual name? Not one of those they created in a useless effort to shame me? Riku, you flatter me." I was about to say something when he continued, "In any case, you're not mortal. Not by a long shot. You won't die, you won't age, and you won't contract any of the wonderfully vile sicknesses that run rampant here." He knelt next to me, lifting my chin to get a better view of my damaged face. "You can, however, be injured. Not fatally, of course. I suppose the Almighty Tyrant wanted you to feel a little pain."

"Don't touch me," I spat, jerking away from the fallen archangel's hand. I pulled at the binds on my hands, but could not budge them.

He chuckled a bit, standing up and brushing off his suit as he said, "Get used to me, kid. Whether you like it or not, we're in the same boat. You're on my side now." He took one last, long look at me before turning to stride away. He lifted his hand and with a low chuckle said, "See you around."

I was going to protest, but then I felt this kind of… heaviness in my eyes and a very uncomfortable pressure in my head. All I could do was watch him walk away before my face fell limply into the mud and the world around me turned black.

...

"I'm telling you, Kairi," I hissed into my phone as I trudged through my practically swampy back yard toward the trees. "It was like a crash, right in my back yard."

"I think you're hearing things," said the girl on the other side. I heard her obnoxiously chewing on something that sounded like chips before she scoffed at whatever she was watching on television. "I swear these things are so unrealistic. You can totally tell that's fake."

"I'm going to check it out anyway," I said as I started through the trees. "I won't be able to sleep tonight if I don't." It had been raining pretty much all week and had finally let up a bit, but because of that, it was very difficult to walk around in the muddy wooded area. I was slipping and sliding all over the place and if there hadn't been the pines to hold onto, I would have fallen on my butt and gotten completely covered in mud. "I think it came from this little clearing back here."

"Don't go in there alone, you idiot!" she wailed. It took me a moment to realize she was talking to the television, not me. "Bitch, you're gonna get dead."

"Not very reassuring, Kairi," I muttered, more to myself than to her.

The last of the trees moved out of my line of vision as I stepped into the clearing and immediately spotted the pale, dirty form on the ground. At first I just gasped, too shocked to move, but then my medical training kicked in and I rushed over to the body.

"I'll have to call you back, Kairi," I hastily shouted.

"Wait, Sora, what's–?"

I hit the end button, my fingers trembling as I dialed 911, kneeling in the mud to check what was now obviously a man for a pulse.

"911, what is your emergency?" the operator answered.

"This is Sora Osment," I replied, trying to keep my voice even so the woman could understand me. "Request an ambulance at 233 Bell Drive. There's a man here in need of medical attention. He's breathing and nothing seems to be broken, but he's pretty beat up and he's unconscious." My eyes ran over his form and I noticed his hands had been tied behind his back. Considering the fact that he was naked and bruised all over… I groaned and added, "Please advise… potential 261."

"Alright, Sora, is there anyone else at the scene?" she asked.

"No," I said. "It's just us. It's pretty far back in the woods though."

"Do you know the man's name?" she asked.

"No," I said. "I just found him like this."

"Help is on the way," she said calmly. "Are you able to stay on the line until help arrives?"

"Yes," I said, shrugging out of my jacket and laying it over the man's nude waist. _What happened to you?_

About five minutes passed before I saw the bright flashing lights that indicated emergency vehicles. The woods between them and me weren't really that thick and I could hear doors slamming. I didn't want to leave this man alone to go and get them, but I had my phone with me. A few SOS flashes later, they were making their way toward me.

"What do we got, Sora?" my former co-worker Lexaeus asked as he set a red stretcher on the ground beside the injured man.

"I don't know how badly he's injured," I said, watching Lex and his new partner carefully move the man onto the stretcher. "But he's alive."

"You left out the part about him being completely naked," Lex said as they carried him toward the ambulance. "Was he attacked or something?"

"We'll know more when he wakes up," I said as I climbed into the back of the ambulance. Lex shot me a dirty look at this. "I'm coming with you."

"Thought this was supposed to be your day off," he said, closing the back doors and alerting the other guy that we were ready to get moving. "Why would you be going to the hospital on your day off?"

"I have the weekend off," I specified, watching Lex work.

"So you should be at home lazing around," Lex said as he checked the man's vitals. "Not out here with us and not worrying about another patient."

"I'm the one who found him, Lex," I said with a sigh. "I feel like he's somehow my responsibility. Besides, the police will probably have questions for me if this turns out to be some kind of attack."

"Have it your way," he said as we neared the hospital.

I didn't know what it was about this man that drew me to him, or whether it was simply the mystery behind his sudden appearance that had me so fixated. I really just wanted to know who he was and how he ended up in the woods behind my house. Something told me, however, that I might not like the answer.

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><p><strong>AN:** Okay, so this is my first time writing something like this, so pardon me if it's a little rocky. I am open to constructive criticism. If there's anything wrong, let me know. In any case, I hope you enjoyed the first installment. Honestly, this started out as a simple experiment to test my range, so I'm unsure how far it will actually go. If people seem to enjoy it, then I will most definitely continue.

P.S. For those of you who don't know, 261 is radio code for rape.


	2. Chapter 2

Everything was a blur when I finally opened my eyes again. I was cold and uncomfortable and I didn't know where I was. It was too bright and I couldn't seem to focus. My head felt like it was on fire, my entire body ached and there was a ringing in my ears that threatened to drive away my last semblance of sanity.

No… wait. The ringing… it wasn't in my head. It was coming from somewhere outside of me. Where… Where was it coming from? What was this place?

"Where am I?" I asked aloud to no one in particular as I looked over to my left. Immediately, I found the source of the ringing, or rather a steady, rhythmic beeping. It was a machine, some sort of machinery with lots of wires that was displaying what I recognized to be English text. This slightly helped to determine where I'd ended up. There were several countries in the modern world that used the English language, but it did exclude those that did not.

I looked down at myself to note that there were various tubes attached to my flesh. I began to pull at these when I noticed something over the end of my right index finger. When I went to pull that off, I heard a male voice coming from my right.

"Radiant Garden General Hospital," he said, meeting my eyes.

I was able to restrain my surprise, but just barely. Of all the places on this earth I could have touched down, I had ended up here with him. That couldn't have been a coincidence.

"We would have taken you to Traverse, but they're swamped with the pile up from that semi that crashed so…" He trailed off, running his hand swiftly through his hair before looking back at me and saying, "I'm glad you're finally awake. I should go get the doctor. She'll want to see you."

The boy disappeared behind a thin curtain and I shuddered. Hospitals. Of course, I should have recognized it the moment I awoke. The scent was unmistakable now. But this place… That boy…

Sora. There was no mistaking him. I'd known his face from the moment it came into existence. I'd memorized that face, studied the life that was no more than a fleeting moment in the span of eternity, and defied the orders that came with it. My only wonder was why. Why this boy? What had he done to deserve such a fate? I'd never been allowed to ask before. Never question orders. Just accept them as they come and carry them out. Do this, go there, take them, and raze that. Throughout it all, I'd always been obedient. I'd never questioned, not once. Not until…

I looked up at him as he returned, my gaze falling softly on his face. I'd never seen that face so closely before. The big cerulean eyes that had lived only in my mind for so long now held my own. I could not cling to such a welcome sight for very long. He had not come back alone.

He was followed by a middle-aged woman dressed in green who introduced herself as Dr. Garrett. "How are you feeling?" she asked as she took note of the numbers displayed on the monitor.

"I'm fine," I said, observing her as she scribbled notes on the pages she was holding.

"Good, good," she said as she flipped through several pieces of paper, "It looks like you didn't have anything on you when you came in. Can you tell us your name, please?"

"Riku," I said, watching the doctor closely.

She took a note before asking, "Last name?"

"I…" I said, catching myself when I realized that I couldn't very well tell her that I didn't have one. I couldn't just make one up either. They would have records of this kind of thing. "I don't know," I finally said, feeling the muscles in my jaw tightening.

"Do you mean you don't remember?" she asked quizzically, taking out a small light and shining it in my eyes. She threw Sora a worried look before marking something in what I now assumed to be a file on me.

"Yes," I said, gripping the thin fabric beneath my fingers. "I don't remember my last name." My first lie… I suppose it had to happen sometime.

"Okay," she said slowly with a small, almost inaudible sigh. She tapped her pen against the page a few times before continuing, "Well, can you remember anything about what happened to you?" She paused for a moment before asking, "Do you know who did this to you?"

I understood that I would sound insane if I told them the truth. They must have assumed that I was the victim of some sort of attack. I suppose I could have made something up to appease them, but nothing I could think of would really explain my condition. So I lied once again. "I don't know. I don't remember."

I looked over at Sora when he sighed. Why was he here, sitting with me? He didn't look like part of the hospital staff, clothes covered in dried mud. Did he… Had he found me? I suppose he must have to be sitting here with me. I had no idea exactly where I'd touched down but it would have left quite a mark, I'm sure. There were probably several people trying to figure out what happened. Hopefully, they wouldn't investigate too thoroughly.

"How did I get here?" I asked, curiosity burning at me.

"Sora there found you," the doctor answered, confirming my suspicion. "He called the ambulance that brought you in.

"I see," I said. So I must have landed rather close to him.

"Now, is there anyone you'd like us to call for you?" the doctor asked, her pen poised to write. "Any family members or friends that you can think of?"

"There is no one," I said with a sigh, the gravity of my situation once again weighing me down. None of my family would ever come to my aid. I was completely alone in the world now.

"In that case…" she said, flipping over a page. "Do you know how old you are?"

I thought about it for a moment, looking down at myself. I didn't know how old I would actually be considered in human years. I obviously didn't want to tell them the truth, but I wanted my age to be something believable. I compared myself to the doctor, who looked much older than my physical body, then to Sora, who looked closer to what my physical age would probably be.

"I'm twenty-two," I said, estimating an appropriate age.

"You know your birthday?" she asked, pen hovering once more over the paper.

"Yeah," I said. "It's October 24, 1992." I didn't actually have a birthday, so I had simply picked a random date, but they didn't need to know that.

"Well," she said, clicking her pen. "Since you're not a minor, I can't really get child services involved. I'll get your information out and see if anyone is missing you, Riku, but until we find some results…" She paused, biting her cheek as she tried to figure out what to do with me. "We'll keep you here for observation for a few days. Also, in light of your condition, there are some tests I want to run. I'm sure the police will have some questions for you too. By then, I'm sure someone will be able to tell us who you are."

"If not?" I asked, looking up at her with a blank look. I knew no one would come to claim me. No one was looking for me.

"Well…" she said, taking a breath and abruptly closing her mouth. She seemed to be at a loss for words.

"He can stay with me," Sora said, speaking for the first time since the doctor had come in. We both looked at him as he said, "He can stay at my place, just until we find out where he belongs."

"I couldn't ask you to do that," I said, my head hung low.

"No, it's really not…"

"Sora… Are you sure about this?" the doctor asked, interrupting him mid-sentence and expressing much more familiarity with the boy than I expected. Ah, but I should have realized.

"It's no problem," he said. "I have that big house all to myself. And it's just temporary, right?"

"A word?" she said, motioning for Sora to follow her into the hall.

My hearing was exceptionally good, so I managed to catch the gist of the conversation they had. Dr. Garrett expressed her worries to Sora about not being sure if he could trust me. She said it wasn't like the boy to do something like this. Sora assured her that he would be careful and once again said that it was only until they found my family. I sighed at this statement. I knew well enough that they would never find any family. No one would ever report me missing and they would never find any record of me in any system. They couldn't find where I belonged because the truth was I didn't belong anywhere anymore.

Sora was right, however. The situation would only be temporary, if I even decided to take him up on his offer. The last thing I wanted to do was burden him, but it wasn't as if I had any other options at the time. In any case, I had no plans to stay with him longer than necessary. I didn't know where I would go when I left, but I couldn't very well stay with him forever. Then there was the obvious problem that if I stayed in one place for too long people would start to notice things, strange things that I wouldn't be able to explain away.

I looked up at Sora when he came back in alone, snapping me out of my thoughts. I saw that he was carrying a set of clothes, which reminded me that I was covered only by the thin robe the hospital staff had dressed me in.

"Since you don't really have any clothes," he said, handing me the garments, "I talked one of my co-workers into letting you borrow some. Just until we can get you some of your own. I hope sweatpants and a t-shirt is okay."

"It's fine," I said, some of what he said sinking in a little slower than the rest. "Do you work here?" My journey must have taken longer than I'd thought. He'd been no more than a boy when all this began. Now here he stood an adult. Time… I'd have to get used to the concept. Time moving at such a slow, steady pace was completely unfamiliar to me.

"I'm not on duty today," he said, slipping his hands into his pockets, "but, yeah. I'm on staff as a nurse here. Dr. Garrett… she's my mom."

"You said you lived alone though," I said, curiosity once again coming to the forefront. I desperately wanted to know more about him, not just about his home life but about who he was. Perhaps then, I would be able to better understand the dismal orders that had been put to me. Perhaps then, some of these burning questions would finally have answers. What was so important about him? Why the Kingdom would be willing to go to such sinister extremes over one seemingly innocuous boy was beyond me. It was maddening.

"I do," he replied. "When my mom remarried, she moved in with my stepdad and left her old house to me."

"So 'Garrett' isn't your last name?" I asked, already knowing the answer but needing to ask. I didn't want to accidentally say his actual last name in the future without ever being told what it was.

"No," he said, a hint of disdain in his voice. "It's Osment. Sora Osment."

"I see," I said, looking down at the clothes in my hands.

"I'll… uh… step out," he said, "so you can get dressed. But first, my mom said it was okay to take the IV out, so…"

An idea struck me as Sora placed his gloved hands on my flesh. If I was close to him, maybe… maybe I could protect him. There was nothing I could see that would make anyone want to hurt this boy. I could see absolutely no reason behind The Kingdom's decision. It was wrong; it was madness. After seeing the boy in question with my own two eyes, I was even more adamant, even more sure of my decision to stand against the Almighty. I would not let Him do this. I would protect this boy.

"Done," he said after taping a little piece of cotton to the part of my arm he'd taken the IV from. "So… I'll be just out there when you're finished changing."

I got up, wincing as my bare feet contacted the cold tiled floor. The hospital robe was easy enough to get out of and I slipped into the new garments as quickly as possible. They were much too big for me, but at least they covered my exposed flesh.

When I was finished donning the clothing, I slid back the curtain that had been keeping my privacy. Sora, as promised, had been standing just beyond it. I began to make my way to a door underneath a sign that read, "Exit," but Sora halted my progress before I could get very far.

"What are you doing?" he asked, raising his hands. "You shouldn't really be up."

"I don't like it here," I said, my eyes drifting over the room, over all the wounded bodies. I took in the aura of vulnerability and pain that hung over this place like a cloud, and the overwhelming scent of those on the brink of death. There was a weakness here and a sorrow that was almost too heavy to bear. I didn't wish to stay here a moment longer. "I'm leaving."

"Wait," Sora said with a sigh, moving to block my path to the exit. "Let me speak with the doctor. Just… wait here, okay?" He backed away from me, his hands still slightly raised. "Stay," he said, as if I were a beast to command. I closed my eyes as he walked away from me. I would heed his command for now, but I would leave when he returned with or without his blessing.

My eyes still closed, I felt for his energy and then followed it as it collided with so many others. It would take a special kind of soul to endure working in a place like this day after day. Any other soul, it seemed, would become heavy with the burden of caring for those sick and dying. Sora was a light amidst the gloom, a radiant life among the dreary fog of death. Beautiful.

A few minutes passed before he returned, followed again by the woman doctor. His mother.

"Sora tells me you're planning to leave," she said. "I would strongly advise against that."

"You can't keep me here," I said, my gaze a bit more intense than it probably should have been.

"True," she said, taking down a note on her clipboard, "but you haven't been discharged yet."

"Then discharge me," I said, the need to leave this place building steadily with each passing moment.

"I'll have to put down that you left against my recommendations," she said, filling in another note. "There's also the matter of your amnesia. I was hoping to run a few tests. If you sustained a head injury, there could be some underlying damage to your brain. There's no way to tell without an MRI."

"I'm fine," I said, my jaw clenched. "I feel fine, and I'm leaving."

"Where will you go?" Sora asked. I wasn't sure, but for a moment there looked to be a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"I…" I began, taking a breath before continuing, "…I was hoping I could take you up on your offer. If that would be okay with you? I… really don't have anywhere to go otherwise."

"Of course," he nodded. Turning to his mother, he placed a hand on her arm and said, "I'll keep an eye on him tonight and I'll see if I can't change his mind about your tests. Okay?"

The doctor hesitated, biting her lip before leaning down to whisper in his ear, "Be careful, Sora."

"Yeah," he breathed in response before turning to me. "Alright. If you'll give me a couple minutes to take care of some things, we'll head out in just a bit."

I nodded, watching as he scurried off after his mother, who glanced over her shoulder at me. I knew she was worried about me staying with her son. She had every right to be worried. After all, I was a stranger and as far as they knew I'd just been involved in a very violent altercation. But my mind was set, and she needn't worry. No force on Heaven or Earth would bring harm to him as long as I still lived. I would protect him.

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><p><strong>AN:** I'm sorry it's been so long. Man, it's almost been a year now since I first published this. Anyone still out there?

So, a lot of stuff's happened in the past year. My mother passed away, the whole huge ordeal with the custody battle for my brother, and finally moving to NYS. Things have finally started to settle down a bit, hence the reason I've decided to upload again. Now that I have a steady job and actual responsibilities I don't know how often I'll be able to update this, but I promise it won't be another year. I'd say probably once a month.

I've got the whole story planned out in my head. All I have to do is get it out of me and onto my computer in the form of hopefully semi readable babble. There are a few twists and turns along the way, stuff I'm still working out the kinks for. I hope it won't be disappointing. Thanks for reading. Leave a review if you liked it. Keeps my motivation... motivated. xD

Arigato gozaimasu! :3


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